subject: A Different Kind Of Fan [print this page] Not many people know it but fans actually come not just in different shapes and sizes but also in different styles. The three main types of fans, regardless what purpose they serve, include the axial flow fan, the centrifugal fan, and the cross flow fan. Of these three, it is the axial flow fan that has found a following amore many people as well as among many industries.
Although all fans feature a row of blades, these three fans have different way by which they act on air. If the axial flow fan allows the air to pass through it in a lateral manner, the cross-flow as well as the centrifugal fan allows the air to pass through in a perpendicular manner. The latter two have also found more use in industrial setting rather than for personal use.
Centrifugal fan, the more well-known between the latter two, also goes by the name squirrel-cage fan or radial fan. Because of their strength in pushing and pulling air, they are the preferred choice when it comes to air pollution control systems. They have also found use in a number of industrial equipment such as leaf blowers and inflators.
A dependable fan manufacturer would tell you that a centrifugal fan is made up of a number of major components such as the fan wheel, fan housing, drive mechanism, and inlet as well as the outlet dampers. There are also three basic types of fan drives the direct drive, the belt drive, and the variable drive.
A number of dampers manufacturers also state that a typical centrifugal fan would most likely have bearings, fan dampers and vanes, and fan ribs as its major components. Bearings are considered to be the most important part of a fan with much sleeve-ring oil bearing being used extensively in various designs of fans. Fan dampers and vanes, on the other hand, are what make the fan able to control the inflow and the outflow of air.
A discerning dampers manufacturer, however, would have a hard time going for a centrifugal fan as this type of fan can be noisier than other types of fans such as the axial flow.
